Imitation
by HannahSakura.Pinoy
Summary: "She is everything you are." Kabuto said. "Except that she lacks a soul." She was only an altered, incomplete replica. She breathed and moved, but lacked the essence that made one a complete human. She was soulless... until he gave her his. FEM Sasuke
1. Chapter 1

My ninth FEM Sasuke fan fiction. I just had to write another one.

* * *

The soul transfer was unpleasant for the both of them. His heart was no longer thundering as hers was in her chest and it never would again. The boy was dead and the girl he left behind breathed harshly as the white hot pain still burned throughout her limbs and the sensation of being filled with a spiritual essence made her body sing continuously a joyous, unified chorus. Sasuke's soul has successfully relocated inside her and as it wailed in utter grief for the loss of his body it also roared out in sheer joy at its new home.

Being a clone she was soulless and had been left nameless because it was deemed that she could only live a tiny fraction of a complete human's average life. Those who created her treated her as an expendable object. From the start he believed she was human although she was only a separated particle produced into his likeness. He wasn't able to shake off the pull that drew them both together. When apart they felt deprived, but they couldn't be together in the snake's lair and so had run away, not taking into account other dangers except for enemy pursuit.

Good fortune allowed them to elude captivity however the stress of suppressing the cursed seal was severe. After three years Sasuke's body finally had to yield to it. They had prepared themselves for the inevitable separation but never expected that he would be the one to die first. During what he was certain were his final moments he gained a resolve to make a gamble as he recalled what Kabuto had told him once about how a soul could only attach itself to a body that was compatible to it. Rejection, in the case of genetically reproduced beings, would result in the destruction of both body and soul. There had never been a successful soul transfer to an artificial body, but…

_She's you, _Kabuto had said. _She's everything you are._

His mind came alive as his body grew weaker. He'd always felt his soul soaring when he was near her and for that he just knew this body that was embracing his so tightly right now would never reject it. In fact it was probably what she yearned for the most in the world. She would always attach herself to him physically as if by being close she would be filled. Her empty body starved of a human's essence, and she fed on the spiritual secretion that bled out of his pores.

The possibility of his plans backfiring was large, but the weight of leaving her alone when she could die any time or possibly dragged back to Otogakure versus dying together accidentally, the latter was a better option.

He passed away immediately after performing a technique he had no idea how to use. He could only back it up with what was probably a very flawed theory, his ever stubborn will, and prayers to gods he never even believed in but desperately needed this moment.

It was a dangerous gamble but he won, and he would be a constant presence within her however long she'd live.

* * *

Chapter 1

* * *

_With wide eyes he stared at the face inside the large glass capsule. The only light in the massive chamber was coming from high above and he could clearly see the girl inside the rectangular container was not conscious and knew she was alive only by the white cloud that appeared and disappeared on the surface of the glass above her mouth. It was the only sign that she was breathing._

_The humming noise in his head that led him there decreased from an urgent rhythm to a slow tempo before fading away completely. Now, it was his heart that throbbed erratically loud in his ears, and a little later he realized that there was also an actual hum of air-conditioners coming from somewhere in the blackness, from more than one area. The air was very cool and he shivered in his thin clothes._

_The eight large bulbs that brought the light were arranged in a circular pattern in the ceiling and allowed a radius of about five meters to be visible. A white tiled floor, various machineries that weren't familiar studded with tiny blinking lights and buttons, some with screens, others with levers. Everything was arranged neatly, the cabinets, tables, and whatever was on or in them. Sasuke couldn't see how large the chamber was, but from the way his footsteps echoed he could tell it was expansive._

_He splayed his fingers on the capsule's surface because of a sudden urge to touch the person inside, it was like ice and he pulled his hand back. It made him briefly wonder how the girl could have slept through the temperature in complete nakedness before his forehead creased deeply in sceptic puzzlement as he continued staring at the oblivious girl. Long, dark hair was swept back from the pale face that held finely arched eyebrows and a straight nose. The girl looked impossibly like him, everything but for the longer lashes and a fuller mouth._

_Sasuke felt a great dread bubbling somewhere inside him, mixing with a slight horror and sorrow, even a flurry of excitement among all sorts of emotions he was too disconcerted to discern. He couldn't identify the reason he was so interested and affected by seeing a girl in a glass cage. _

"_Mesmerized, Sasuke-kun?" The familiar male voice drew him away temporarily but he only glanced back at the gray-haired figure long enough to see him step away from the shadows that swallowed everything except for that small area. Kabuto's expression was contrived, his amusement spilling disgustingly towards Sasuke who recalled a similar look just three days ago when he was advised by this same person to never mention the incident of accidentally discovering the door that led down this secret room to anyone._

"_Is she…?" The boy couldn't finish his words, not knowing what he was even going to ask and afraid of knowing the truth yet wanting to hear it and obtain answers to the multitude of questions that wouldn't pass through his lips._

"_She's not your sister if that's what you're thinking." Sasuke dread eased somewhat, knowing that at least Orochimaru wasn't keeping a long lost sister from him and has been treating her as a test subject since immediately after she was born. "She's you, Sasuke-kun. An exact… well, almost exact replica created from your cell sample."_

_The truth was no better. In fact it was perverse and it made him sick that he was being used as an experiment. Nonetheless it wasn't surprising. "A clone, I should say, and Orochimaru-sama thought it would be amusing to see you in a slightly altered form, and so, as you see…"_

_The older male smiled as the dark-eyed boy finally turned his full attention on him. The young Uchiha's mouth pressed into a tight line as he tried to process the new information._

"_Anyway I knew you would come back to snoop around here. You looked so curious that day I knew you couldn't resist a peek." He pushed back his spectacles as he spoke and walked ten steps towards the right; visibly certain there would be no obstructions of any kind. A small desk lamp was brought to life revealing a long wooden table with three drawers of equal length. On the surface were all sorts of containers, jars, also a teapot surrounded by inverted teacups beside a small thermos. "As you can see I even prepared for your visit. What type of tea would you like? Oolong? No? Jasmine, then? Or would you prefer the rice tea I bought last week from…"_

_Sasuke said nothing, mind suddenly empty. Kabuto's voice was drowned out by a sudden voiceless cry that came from somewhere deep inside him. It was his soul, exclaiming its longing confusion. Somehow he understood. The girl had been a part him and now his soul yearned for an end to the separation. His heart throbbed once, then twice more. _

"_Sasuke-kun, you're not listening." Kabuto sighed as he approached the container, and then pushed the button on the upper left side that Sasuke did not notice before. The cover slid sideward while the cold air spilled and drifted outwards and he felt it circle around his feet._

_The girl's eyelids started trembling with apparent difficulty to be lifted open. And when they did her eyes were the color of midnight black and her stare, although dazed, pierced through him as she extends a shaking hand towards him, trying to reach out with a desperation that was almost palpable to him. _

_Sasuke's body clenched with a strange feeling. He shivered, and it wasn't from the cold._

* * *

I really should be updating other fics instead of writing new ones.

I actually wrote this last year but I'd been too frustrated to finish the chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

_Ignored, Kabuto watched them, face serious. He could see Sasuke's initial hesitance gradually die away as the boy's hand tightened its grip on the slightly smaller one. Two very beautiful children, the bespectacled teen was in concealed awe at the sight of the reunited pair. He understood by the crease on the younger boy's forehead that he was still mystified by an undeniable attraction, and Kabuto thought a sense of connection was only natural and he had expected he would be a witness to such a scene. _

_He wordlessly observed as the girl sat up and immediately reached out to embrace her 'parent' while trembling from the cold and maybe something more, he suspects. An outsider like him would never understand, though. Something was happening that only the two were experiencing. He could sense something as the two looked at each other and reached out to touch each other._

_From her body language Kabuto read what seemed to be delighted affection, which the receiver appeared to be ignorant of as he lifted her away from the pod. The blush on Sasuke's pale cheeks later told Kabuto otherwise. _How cute_, he thought. There was definitely something in the air between them, and it slightly irked him that he would probably never attain an exact answer to what it is._

_Her expression never changed even once, Kabuto noted, and recalled how the fact was true for all the clones he'd seen, and while they were capable they only did so after learning through mimicking other people. _

_Affection, fear, all emotions were acted upon instinct. This girl greatly responded to Sasuke because he was her source and being drawn was inevitable. She would never truly experience feelings, just as she would never have a will among other complex attributes that a human being possesses because of one missing factor._

"_She is everything you are." Kabuto purposely broke the silence even though he found it was a great shame to interfere with what could be their only time together. He grabbed a thin blanket from a narrow closet mostly hidden in the shadows and handed it to Sasuke so he could wrap it around her. The girl leaned into the unguarded body at once, disliking even the briefest loss of contact and clutched the back of Sasuke's kimono shirt tightly with both hands. "Except that she lacks a soul. She is empty of a human being's essence and for that reason her life would be a short one. A soul cannot be artificially created and although we have figured out that a soul transfer is very possible the matter of compatibility is crucial."_

_Pausing to allow Sasuke to process his words, he decided to make tea, choosing a random tin box from the array on the table and scooped the leaves into the teapot. His nose recognized the aroma of _sencha_ that rose as hot water was poured in. Behind him the pair was both silent and still. He knew Sasuke was listening intently, waiting for the rest of his words. _

"_As much as we would like to keep your clone alive we haven't found a suitable soul for her. Forcing one in would not only break the artificial body that rejects it, the soul would also expire. From the time Orochimaru-sama began this experiment there has never been a soul successfully housed in the past sixty-three clones, created from a selection of other cell samples, of course, so we won't foolishly attempt to do the same to this one." To conclude his account, he said." She could live without a soul anytime between three months to a few years. So far the longest is six years." _

_Minutes dragged on after the tea Kabuto offered was refused by the boy, who purposely ignored him, and the girl, who only responded to Sasuke. _

"_You don't really care though whether she dies soon, because she is something you can reproduce," stated Sasuke, understanding the things Kabuto never said outright but affirmed with his silence. _

_Somehow, the boy sensed the smirk the Snake master's apprentice was shrouding behind the shadows and a violent anger bubbled inside him and trickled out from the pores of his skin. He felt the curse seal's eagerness to conquer him and he willed it to cease because two months under Orochimaru's tutelage wasn't enough for him to learn control. Despite many hours of strict training he is still unable to restrain the dark power when it's fully active._

_Sasuke knew he would very likely kill her unintentionally under the seal's influence and he didn't want that even though he didn't know her. He was angry at Orochimaru, at Kabuto, for creating her, for keeping her locked deep underground. _

_She had been waiting for something. Not knowing what it is, not knowing that she had been longing for it. A brief, complete darkness rushed through his mind's eye. The feeling of absolute restraint gripped his body. The urge to move was strong but as if he was made of stone, his body would not budge. The screams couldn't escape his closed mouth. And there was that pain; a non-physical pain that wanted to rip him apart from the inside. That was her life in that glass container._

_And then he's back to the present, with the girl looking at him, he at her, and they were still within each other's arms as if they belonged there. They were so close together that no space existed between them. He moved his hands from her shoulders to embrace her properly, like how he vaguely remembers he was embraced when he was young. _

_All he wants at this moment is to protect her._

* * *

I have to try something_, he said to himself over and over in his head. He felt a bead of sweat slide down his cheek from his temple despite the cold. "If I become the perfect host, once my body becomes useless Orochimaru would just use another clone. It would no longer be necessary for him to look for another qualified body for his soul."_

_Kabuto answered nothing and silence filled the room for some minutes that felt much longer. Sighing, he put away the cup of untouched tea he poured for himself and finally broke through the quiet. _What a waste_, the silver-haired teen thought._

"_I know what you're thinking, Sasuke-kun." The boy turned slightly away, hiding more of his face with his long bangs while knowing it was a futile move because Kabuto has already read his next move using all sorts of method. His eyes turned red as his heart started racing. His right hand slid towards the black holster strapped to his thigh. Willing himself to calm down, he breathed in deeply. As if sensing his distress with that action, the head on his shoulder raised itself to look at him and he looked down on those large black eyes. _

"_You won't make it out alive on your own even if you get past me." Those words echoed in his head even before Kabuto had voiced it out. He was only a child with no allies. He had no home to serve as shelter for them to even pretend they could be safe for a while. The young Uchiha felt his fingers twitching, unsure whether or not he should reach for a weapon._

_There was no plan forming in his head that could work against his opponent because Kabuto was more experienced and admittedly more skilled and intelligent. The only means for victory would be to use the dark power resting between his neck and shoulder but the risks were great._

_This girl with his face, her wordless affection and longing… he's not allowing himself to lose her by not trying._

_He felt his resolve returning._

* * *

More than the agony that burned through her veins a different pain swamped her inside as she witnessed the final rise and fall of his chest and his eyes turning dead. A cry that sounded very far away was torn out of her throat. From her chest something was spilling out of her; an invisible and intangible mass that she is feeling for the first time.

The three years they spent together was the bright portion of both their lives and its loss left a melancholic tint that would probably coat her world from now on. He loved her as much as she loved him and she always knew that their feelings would live on until the world comes to an end. He gave her much more than she could have hoped for back when she was confined in the dim chamber, unconscious yet aware of something missing. On that fateful night her yearning had been particularly fierce. It had miraculously brought him to her. It called him over.

Sasuke gave her a promise that he would never leave her, but not with words. His eyes said it when he looked at her, his arms screamed it whenever he embraced her. She wished strongly to never disappear. How could she have known that in exchange, Sasuke would wither?

Looking at him now, so still, turning cold, she could find no comfort. She now blooms with life, while Sasuke has become a fallen flower. Weeping, she closes her eyes to pretend it is all a dream.

* * *

Sencha is the most common green tea in Japan according to Wikipedia.

Thank you for everyone who read and especially to those who left reviews! I didn't expect this to fare so well. Also glad to find the presence of some readers of my earlier FEM Sasuke fics. Thank you very much!

It was challenging for me to write this and my theories are probably full of flaws but I do hope you enjoyed reading.

If you care to read my profile, I posted something regarding why I can't update.


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